Faculty

John B. Thomas

Professor Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory

Education

BA, Biology, Washington University

PhD, Biology, Yale University

Postdoctoral fellow, Stanford University

Research

The focus of our research is to understand how neurons are assembled during development to produce a functioning nervous system. The growth cones at the tips of developing axons are guided to their synaptic target cells by cues in the extracellular environment. Specific receptors on the growth cones recognize these cues and transduce signals that ultimately lead to changes in direction of growth. To identify these guidance molecules, we have taken a genetic approach in Drosophila by isolating mutations that alter specific features of axon guidance and target recognition. For our mutant screens we created a set of axon-targeted reporters that allow us to directly visualize the morphology of neurons expressing them. Our screens have yielded a number of molecules, from axon guidance receptors such as Derailed, which together with its ligand Wnt5, controls how axons project across the midline, to a family of transcription factors, the LIM-homeodomain proteins, which combinatorially control motor neuron pathway selection and muscle target recognition. The guidance molecules we have discovered in Drosophila have mammalian homologs that turn out also to function in axon guidance.

From the work of our lab and a number of others we know something about how axons are guided to their target destinations in order to eventually synapse with their appropriate target cells, thus forming the neural circuits that make up the nervous system. However, we have little understanding of how these circuits are actually assembled. We know even less about how they generate behaviors. To begin addressing these questions, we are functionally and anatomically defining neural circuits underlying "simple" behaviors such as locomotion. Our long-term goal is to understand how these circuits develop and function.

"Our long-term goal is to understand how nerve cells are assembled into circuits during
development to produce a functional nervous system."

Nervous systems generate behaviors through
the coordinated activity of specific neural
circuits. During development, these circuits
are formed by growing nerve cells extending
long projections called axons, which hook up
with other nerve cells or with muscles to
control locomotion. At the tip of each growing
axon is the growth cone, which steers
the axon to its target cells by responding
to cues in the extracellular environment.
Capitalizing on our advanced knowledge on
the genetics of the fruit fly Drosophila,
Thomas's lab has identified key molecules
in the axon's navigation system that govern
basic events common to all nervous systems,
such as axons growing from one side of the
brain to the other or projecting out of the nervous
system to connect with muscles.

Crosstalk between the two sides of the nervous
system is essential for many behaviors,
from simple coordinated locomotion to the
integration of higher cognitive functions.
Its importance is underscored by the large
number of nerve cells that project their axons
across the midline to the opposite side.
Thomas has identified a number of axon
guidance molecules, including receptors on
the growth cone that bind to specific ligands
in the extracellular environment, guiding
axons along specific routes across the midline.
These receptors and ligands belong to
larger families of related molecules that have
also been found to guide axons in mammals.
This means these guidance molecules are
deeply rooted in who we are, whether we
are a fly on the wall or a human being wielding
a flyswatter.

Once the neural circuits are formed during
development using the axon guidance molecules,
how do they generate behaviors?
The Thomas lab activates and inactivates
specific nerve cells to understand the circuit
that generates locomotion. Just like the axon
guidance molecules, the principles of how
circuits generate locomotion in flies will be
important to understanding the neural basis
of locomotion in higher vertebrates, including
humans.